Jewish Emancipation

Jewish Emancipation, 1848 Among the primary causes of the
revolutions of 1848 was the longstanding call for liberation,
particularly of the middle class. Thus, a universal objective
was the call for elections for assemblies to write constitutions
which would "throw off the iron leading strings of the
aristocracy" (Heine) and guarantee basic rights universally to
all citizens. The objective of Jewish emancipation that would
grant them equal civil and political rights with the rest of the
citizens was part of the great burgher movement of emancipation
of all citizens from the old aristocratic order Therefore, in
central Europe, where Jewry continued to suffer legal
discrimination, Jews were often part of a demand for civil rights
as the part of radical programs. The liberation of Jews from the
legal complexity of the old order became one of the principal
issues in the various constitutional deliberations. The ensuing
public debate on the rights of the Jews, however, led to
ambivalent results.

On one side Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with non-Jews in
their fight for emancipation; two of the five victims in Vienna
in the March 1848 violence were Jews, while at least ten Jews
died in the fighting in Berlin. Yet on the other side, the 1848
uprisings ushered in a new more intense anti-Jewish hostility as
many Christians feared that emancipation would be tantamount to
Jewish domination. The German theologian David Friedrich Strauss
commented on the ambiguity that "at the very time when on one
side an overwhelming vote of confidence has been carried in favor
of the Jews . . . we see on the other side a clear vote of no
confidence interposed." There is no question that in most states
trying to liberate themselves, Jews played an active role. Equal
rights for Jews were inextricably tied with demands for
constitutions and civil rights, and consequently the vast
majority of Jews sided with the revolutionaries.

Liberals advocated Jewish emancipation for a variety of reasons.
Some liberals did so with the premise that discriminatory laws
were anachronistic and morally unjust, while others wanted to
rescind prejudicial laws believing that this would be an
effective way to encourage assimilation or conversion. Most
liberals believed that emancipation would compel Jews to adapt to
the ways of the majority. They were less persuaded to liberate
Jews out of an abstract political morality than they were out of
economic utility. Both Jews and liberals thought the first step
toward an equal society was to have laws guaranteeing basic
freedoms. Paragraph 13 of the Basic Rights of the Frankfurt
Parliament stated that civil rights were not to be conditional on
belonging to a particular religious faith. For the Jews, this
was a great improvement over the Act of 1815 which allowed
special legislation dealing with Jews. In practice, each state
in the German Confederation enacted different ways of dealing
with its Jewish population ranging from minor acts of
discrimination to outright bans against Jews. Part of the
enthusiasm that Jews exhibited for a united Germany stemmed from
the belief that one uniform law would be more beneficial than
thirty-nine separate ones. It must be pointed out though that
perhaps a quarter of European Jews could be considered
conservative, and that a majority of Jews were not politically
active during the events of 1848. Those Jews who did participate
in the rebellions were however liberal or radical.

Each nation treated Jews distinctly before 1848. Only in France
and the Netherlands were Jews earlier emancipated, and thus the
events of 1848 had little influence on their legal status.
Nonetheless, two Jews, Adolphe Crémieux and Michel
Goudchaux, were active in the French provisional government, and
Rabbi Aron joined the bishop of Strasbourg and the Protestant
clergy in 1848 to bless liberty trees and praise the Republic.
Like in France, Great Britain abolished all legal restrictions in
1846 so the Jewish debate in 1848 was a minor factor. Most other
countries, except for Russia, had been gradually debating and
ameliorating the restrictions against Jews in the previous half
century. This piecemeal move toward emancipation coincided, in
many areas, with greater Jewish assimilation. As the barriers to
citizenship fell, Jews began to play a prominent role in public
life, and, at least in the cities, commenced to be more accepted
by their fellow countrymen. One historian wrote that "public
opinion...of the middle class opposition had come round to the
cause of emancipation. The demand for emancipation, raised by
Christian and Jew alike, was clearly in agreement with the
Zeitgeist, and thus, the ambiguous attitude of a
number of bourgeois politicians notwithstanding, Jewish
emancipation became an important plank in the political programs
of the Liberal and Democratic movements." Thus, in many ways
1848 can be seen as a culmination of a half century of progress
as the constitutional guarantees extended earlier initiatives.

Most Jewish and non-Jewish liberals hoped that with one broad
stroke, all social and economic inequalities would be abolished.
Some Jews like Gabriel Riesser, the most prominent Jewish
spokesman for emancipation in the German states, believed new
laws would erode the social gulf by encouraging mixed marriages.
"A consequence of our new law," he asserted, "will be that
marriages will be mixed, and that religion will no longer be a
permanent and insuperable dividing wall preventing a union of
peoples." This sentiment was taken further by David Strauss who
hoped that emancipation would inevitably lead to mixed marriages
which would "bring about the disappearance a peculiarities and
ossified traits which have so far made of the Jews such a burden
on our civil society." One Jewish liberal became so enthralled
by the promise of emancipation that he wrote: "The messiah, for
whom we prayed these thousands of years, has appeared and our
fatherland has been given to us. The messiah is freedom, out
fatherland is Germany." Gabriel Riesser asserted, "If you will
grant emancipation with one hand, and with the other the
realization of the beautiful dream about the political
unification of Germany, I would take the second hand
unhesitatingly, because I am convinced that a unified Germany
will also include emancipation."

There were some Jews nevertheless who feared that if the liberals
succeeded in breaking down the impediments to assimilation the
existence of the Jewish community would be threatened. Many
Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews feared that emancipation wou
ld not be in the best interest of Judaism or the Jewish people. They
worried that many may perceive legal equality as an opportunity
for secession, and that the proliferation of intermarriages could
lead to the extinction of Judaism.

During 1848 liberals fought against the notion that states should
be based on the principles of Christianity, and furthered the
idea that individuals made up the cornerstone of the state. They
believed that the fewer restrictions placed on people, the more
prosperous the state would be. Conversely, many of the
revolution's opponents were also opposed to the doctrines of
Liberalism, and consequently, to emancipation. The Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm IV wanted to deprive the Jews of the rights as
state citizens in 1847. Conservatives like Prussian Minister of
the Interior von Thile argued against Jewish Emancipation by
stating that granting Jews any rights in government was
irreconcilable with Christendom because they would be expected to
take part either in the permeated with the Christian spirit.
Thus, opposing Jewish Emancipation in 1848 was just one of the
reasons that Conservatives fought against the ideals of the
revolution.

Part of the reason that Jewish emancipation became a major issue
in many of the deliberations was that Jews themselves
participated in the overthrowing of the monarchies as well as the
writing of the new constitutions. In August, 1848, Riesser, who
was elected Vice President of the National Assembly in Frankfurt,
countered demands that Jews be placed under separate legislation
because they were not Germans by declaring that: "under just
laws, Jews would be the most ardent patriots of Germany; they
will become Germans along with, as well as among, Germans. Do
not presume that discriminatory laws can be tolerated without
dealing a disastrous blow to the entire system of freedom, and
without introducing demoralization into it!" Riesser was not the
only Jew fighting for German unification, five others
joined him at the preparliament (Vorparlament), and seven Jews
were elected to the German national assembly.

Like the debate in Frankfurt, the one in Vienna was consequential
in deciding the fate of Habsburg Jews. In many cities of the
Austrian Empire, like Bratislava and Prague, the insurgency
provided a convenient motive for popular attacks on Jews. In
fact these attacks were repeated in various locals throughout
Europe. Since Jews were associated with the bourgeoisie who were
allegedly bent on bringing new capitalist ways of production to
society, in addition to of course practicing a cabalistic
religion, many farmers and artisans blamed the Jews for their
economic troubles. In Vienna, however, attacks against Jews were
rare despite the fact that there were many Jews who took part in
the Revolution. Dr. Adolf Fischhof became the foremost orator of
the insurrection in Vienna where Jews were killed fighting side
by side with Christians attempting to bring about a new order,
and the Jewish dead were buried in a common grave with the other
martyrs. Speaking at the funeral for the fallen revolutionaries,
Rabbi Mannheimer of Vienna addressed the Austrians arguing: "You
wish that the Jews killed in action be buried alongside your own
victims. Then you should also permit those who participated in
the struggle together with you to live here on a par with you.
Accept us a free men!"

Even though the provisional authorities who came to power in
March deferred complete emancipation of Jews until constitutional
assemblies were elected, restrictions against Jews ceased to be
enforced. On April 25, the government offered civil rights to
all religions with the stipulation that the provision dealing
with Jews would be reviewed. After renewed violence in May, Jews
were given full rights. Both Fischhof and a Viennese student
Joseph Goldmark played important roles in bringing about full
emancipation. Moreover, several Jews sat in the Vienna Reichstag
in July. In October, after a rousing speech by Mannheimer, the
Austrian parliament, just before its members fled to Moravia,
voted to abolish the remaining taxes on Jews. Likewise, the last
act of the revolutionary Hungarian government lifted the final
barriers to emancipation.

Yet, when the Austrian monarchy recaptured the city, the new
emperor, Franz Joseph, dissolved the Reichstag and
nullified the "Basic Laws." Many revolutionaries were arrested
including Fischhof who was sentenced to nine months, and Goldmark
who was sentenced to death. Goldmark, like many other Jewish and
non-Jewish revolutionaries, managed to escape to the United
States. In addition, the radical publicist, Hermann Jellinek,
was caught and shot. Jellinek's death reminds us that while most
Jews were not political radicals, some prominent people of Jewish
origin emerged as leaders of the nascent socialist movement.

Franz Joseph's 1849 constitution contained a clause guaranteeing
equal rights, but he abrogated the document two years later. By
1853, new bans against Jews acquiring real estate and moving to
certain areas of the empire were constituted. Soon "Jewish
oaths" were restored, and in some districts, like Galicia, Jews
were forbidden to hire Christian domestics. Similarly in Hungary
where Jews played a more minor role than they did elsewhere, they
were nonetheless blamed by the counter revolutionaries and forced
to pay a special tax for their support of the revolution.

The results of 1848 were ambiguous. In many nations, Jews kept
some of their newly won freedoms, while in other states their
emancipation was repealed. In Germany when the parliament of
Frankfurt dissolved, it was replaced by the old
Bundestag, and alliance of rulers instead of
nations. The "Basic Rights of the German People" was abolished
in 1851, and Jews were once again subject to discrimination. The
idea of a "Christian state" reechoed in Prussia and many other
states. Prussian law included a paragraph stating that: "The
Christian religion shall be the basis in all government
institutions that are associated with religion." Jews would have
to wait until 1871 for legal emancipation to take hold,
ironically the Jewish emancipation went hand in hand in once
again with German unification. Yet in the decades following 1848
many Jews realized that the social and economic emancipation
depended less on legalization and more on the willingness of the
population at large to accept Jews as fellow citizens.
Glenn R. Sharfman

Bibliography

Baron, Salo. "The Impacts of the Jewish Revolution of 1848 on
Jewish Emancipation," Jewish Social Studies XI
(1949).

Dubnov, Simon. History of the Jews: From the Congress of
Vienna to the Emergence of Hitler (New York: A.S. Barnes
and Co., 1973), V.